Home

PSC100Y is a hybrid version of Introduction to Cognitive Psychology that combines online lectures with live, small-group discussion sections.  It was developed at UC Davis by Steve Luck, with assistance from Ashley Royston, Branden Kolarik, Breanna Fuchs, and Zeke Skovron. Financial support was provided by a UC Davis Provost Hybrid Course Award. The purpose of this Web site is to provide details about the design, construction, and outcomes of the course for people who are interested in developing their own hybrid courses.

The overarching goal of creating a hybrid version of this course was to improve learning with the same costs (in time and money) of delivering the course (excluding the initial development time, which was substantial). By moving the lecture material online, it was possible to improve the learning of the basic course material (by making the lecture experience more interactive, with frequent online quizzes) and allow for deeper learning (by freeing up the instructor’s time to lead small-group discussion sections). The course has now been taught several times, and students clearly learn substantially more in the hybrid version than in the original lecture version of the course. They also enjoy the course and provide tremendous positive feedback.

There are many ways to design a hybrid course. And it is easy to create an awful hybrid course. Our goal in providing this case study is to provide one successful model for people who are considering creating their own hybrid courses.